There are plenty of companies that will sell your name, email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, marital status, and relative’s names. They obtain the information from publicly sold databases. I had access to one that had all that, plus the registration info for the car I drive, my estimated income, my military record, my driving record, my political party preference, and pictures of my home that had been on the realtor’s website.

The scary one was when a phone center employee in the Philippines stole my wife’s debit card number and then did two big Western Union MoneyGram transfers to a couple of Filipino men. That means bad actors have access to the credit companies’ databases from which Western Union draws their proof of identity questions, like who holds your mortgage, where you lived when you were 10, and the make/model of your first vehicle.

If you’re well-off enough to be a financial fraud target, paying a company for identity theft protection is probably well worth it. Put fraud alerts in with all the major credit bureaus too. That usually stops identity thieves from accessing your credit. If you use 2FA with your phone, make sure your telecom provider will not transfer your number to a new device without in-person authorization and authentication.

Absentee ballot. Always worked for me in the Navy.

When you shop for a place to live, do you buy/rent nothing because nothing is “perfect”? Or do you weigh the benefits and detriments of each available option and choose the best one?

There’s a clear choice, and if you need to see what voter apathy gets you, look at Venezuela. We got a second chance because the Jan 6 attempt failed. If you don’t vote, the usurper might win.

My grandkids use it. Gotta train them young. Thanks McD’s! (They even painted it orange)

Not recommended for lycra or spandex suits, or any suit that has elastic closures, particularly during the summer months. They will rapidly degrade in the heat of the car. My wife left hers in the car after a vacation (never used it). It was tucked in the trunk. Found it a month later and it disintegrated in the wash.

It wasn’t any particular scientific discovery that weakened religion. It was the popularity of science fiction that did it. As Arthur C. Clarke put it, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” People can now imagine how miracles are done without invoking anything supernatural. We might not have the tech to do it yet, but we have a pretty good idea of potential methods. That has placed a lot of “creator god” religions under pressure. Create life? Tech will eventually do it. Create a world? Sure, tech again. Given enough tech, a solar system can be spawned. Water into wine? We’re halfway there with Kool-Aid. We already have vimanas (those ancient Hindu flying vehicles). We call them airplanes or helicopters. We can destroy a whole city with a single weapon. So why should we worship a supreme being who supposedly did those things?

Assuming we can conquer poverty, religions that survive will be centered around improving the human condition. Worshipping dieties will eventually fall by the wayside. It will still be a long process. You can’t dispel faith with reason and facts. And people in poverty tend to embrace religion because it gives them comfort and hope that things will be better in the afterlife.

Animals were doing it long before humans even existed. Some birds will “bathe” in an ant nest because the formic acid excreted by the ants rids them of parasites. There’s even a word for it - zoopharmacognosy.

Long before recorded history, people knew what plants were helpful to treat or cure various maladies. Who knows what possessed the first human to chew on willow bark to relieve pain or reduce a fever? The earliest documentation of it was 400 BCE by Hippocrates, but it was probably common knowledge for much longer than that. The Chinese have been using various herbs to treat disease for at least 3000 years.

Every time I do a search, the bot usually provides enough info. The problem is that I don’t trust the bot because it’s been wrong before. So I still need to continue the search to find an authoritative answer.

That’s the problem with bots. If you trust their answers and they’re wrong, it can be a real problem. There was a story a while ago about an Air Canada customer service bot that was giving out bad info about bereavement travel. When a customer tried to get the promised refund, the airline admitted the advice was wrong, but claimed the bot was a separate legal entity, therefore they were not responsible for the advice it gave.

Is this the new Russian assault vehicle?

Critical Thinking skills. Imagine a world where everyone is able to sus out the lies, separate fact from fiction, and not fall into pitfalls of illogical thinking.

No joke.

https://youtu.be/xbdqDe8M41A

I once tried sardine ice cream. I love sardines and I love ice cream. The only place I want them to mix is AFTER they are in my stomach.

Bet you don’t like Hawaiian pizza then.

Lift up the lid on the tank. Push down the float. If it still won’t fill, fill the tank with water from the sink or shower, then flush normally.

Do we have a sentient soul? I would say no, and as proof I point to those suffering from Alzheimer’s. That disease robs a person of their memory, so by the time of death they have lost much of who they were. If the sentient soul exists, it must be able to remember, otherwise it cannot retain the traits that make the individual unique. It should retain all the memories of our life. Yet those with Alzheimer’s forget who they are. How is this possible if we possess a sentient soul? If we cannot retain memories in this life, how will we do so in the next?

What about those with major brain damage from stroke or mishap? Part of their brain died, and whatever that part contained, it’s now gone. Is their soul now split? Did part of it “move on” with the dead part of the brain?

Using generator exhaust is inviting overheating the tank. I’ve been around one when the relief valve pops, and that’s a big fire waiting for a spark. It doesn’t take a lot of heat - maybe 30 watts - to keep the pressure up. They make tank wrap heaters specifically for this purpose. But I needed power (this was during one of California’s infamous “Public Safety Power Shutoffs” used to avoid wildfires). So I used what I had; a washtub and water.

The standard 20# tank has only one safety device - an overfill protection mechanism that prevents filling the tank more than 80%. The propane regulator for portable propane appliances is where the flow limiting device is located. That heavily limits the flow of propane if it detects insufficient backpressure on the outlet side of the regulator when initially pressurizing it (turning on the tank valve).

I have no issue with the 500 gallon tank. It has plenty of surface area in contact with the propane and good air circulation around the entire tank.

I was thinking of Buddhists who worship no god but believe in reincarnation. I also have friends who claim to be atheists yet believe there is an afterlife in a higher dimension.

My personal belief is that the last state of the biological computer we call a brain becomes our eternity. Religion is designed to make that last thought a hopeful one.

I bought a 22KW propane generator. It’s supposed to be plumbed to a large tank, but due to the pandemic I could not get the 500 gallon tank plumbing installed (county permit office was issuing for “emergencies only”). So I tried a 20# cylinder. It iced up after 6 minutes and the generator stalled shortly after. So I bought a 100# tank. That ran for 5 hours until the generator stalled. The tank was still 1/3 full.

What’s happening is that there’s insufficient area for heat transfer. The propane has to vaporize, so it draws heat from the part of the tank in contact with the liquid. The environment provides that heat, but in a small 20# tank there’s not enough surface area to transfer the amount of heat needed to vaporize the quantity of propane required by the generator. The propane stops vaporizing once its temperature drops below the boiling point, and the generator starves. The 100# tank has the same problem when the propane level drops, reducing the surface area in contact with the liquid propane. In the large horizontal tanks, the propane is in contact with a large surface area, and the tank is supported off the ground to provide good air circulation.

Your options are to buy a bigger tank or provide more heat to the small tank. What worked for me was an old washtub filled with water. I put the tank in it, then left the garden hose trickling water into the tub to keep the water from freezing.

If you do opt for a large tank, buy a reconditioned one. They’re half the price of new and last about as long because older tanks were made with thicker steel. Buying will save you money because you’re free to buy from the cheapest supplier. Buy your propane in the summer when the price is low. Get a tank big enough enough to last the whole year. When you lease a tank, the leasing company is the only one that can fill it, so you won’t be able to shop around for the cheapest price. Mine paid for itself in 2 fills (compared my bills with my neighbor who leases their tank).

That atheists don’t believe in an afterlife.

Probably because in a real racing seat there’s a harness to keep you from slouching. I used to have terrible lower back issues with a Recaro bucket seat I converted for a desk chair. Never had a problem with it driving for hours when it was in my car (may it rest in pieces). Then it dawned on me that the seatbelt was maintaining my posture. Added a lap belt and the back problems abated.